Dragon Warrior Project - Claim tracks, send WIPs, yeah?

[Monobrow]

Metaphist officially back on for Underworld.

[ShrackAttack]

Finally got some real progress on this , sorry for the delay. Going to try to send a nice WIP probably around March, maybe sooner.

[Fratto]

My computer went all to hell in August. Finally got something that can run music programs again. I'll see what's backed up from my track and see what I need to do from there.

[Monobrow]

Awesome. Get them to me when you've made some progress. I will give feedback promptly. If my pm box is full for any reason, I can also be found on IRC (or msg Protricity/Prot if I am not around).

Thanks guys!

[milothefultz]

I was wondering if there is still need of tracks to be claimed? I'm going to talk with my friends and see if they're game to play an arrangement of #16 from DW1, Ending Theme. I am very, very new to this scene, so I was wondering what exactly you need from me before I can claim the song? As a background, I'm playing with a group right now that is drums, bass, keyboard, and saxophone, though we are far from jazz, and much closer to groove music. Closer to

or

. Let me know if it will work for this project. Thanks,

Milo

Edit: I'm going to arrange this song anyway, so if you want it, it'll hopefully be ready at least for a WIP in a couple of weeks.

Edited April 18, 2012 by milothefultz

[New Age Retro Hippie]

can you please call this album

"A slime appears!"

?

[The Coop]

Judging by the copious lack of activity, I'm guessing this project's dead?

[Brandon Strader]

I think if it was revived and covered 1 game at a time, it could work out... focus on DW1 and then maybe do DW2 later and so on

I don't even know if I have my session anymore for mine but it'd be easy enough to remake it, it'd turn out even better, but some condensing would be good for the thingy

[metaphist]

I still have my WIPs. I've often thought about going back and finishing it. I most likely will, whether this picks back up or not. At any rate, you bumped the thread and I noticed, so maybe it will stir some commotion.

[x_loto]

The Children of Erdrick never die!...They just respawn at the last save point. ;-P

Is Monobrow still in charge of this? She hasn't posted in here for 18 months....

I have only posted once before, about a non-remix song (but Dragon Warrior themed, as it happens), but I heard of this project after Balance and Ruin hit and I was intrigued. I'm shocked at how few songs have been claimed and how many cuts have been made due to inactivity, but conceptually I can't imagine this working as three albums, since DQI is so short for instance, and the three are so inextricably linked plotwise (at least I and III).

Longstoryshort, I'd like to say I have some ideas for DQI - Battle, possibly probably sprinkled with some overworld and underworld. I know I'm completely unknown here so I'm not going to try to "lay claim" to anything without a WIP, but maybe bumping this up and showing some enthusiasm will get some attention. Don't let this die, guys!

[Monobrow]

Revamping the project has been talked about, but mostly people are involved in other projects that have taken their attention. When I took over, it was during that period where projects were being created about, I dunno, once a week haha. Suddenly everyone had multiple tracks on a number of albums, myself included.

One longer album w/ some cut tracks makes sense IMO. We don't have to do every song (this was never my intention) but I kept the track list open in case anything appealed to anyone. I think the biggest problem is that this project never really got a big crowd of people all at once since it was launched by Rexy in 2005. I only took it over because it was about to be completely cut from OCR (and there was progress query and a lockdown for other projects at the time). I made an attempt to get people interested but IMO many standard remixers either do not know much about Dragon Warrior or if they do, they find the source material off-putting once they get started (something I've heard many many times).

There is no point in setting deadlines if not enough people have claimed tracks at the same time. So this is definitely going to need more support to get started. I have often thought of recruiting help from people to spread the word or assist (and have tried) but after a while interest dissipates.

If I restarted this project ((which I have planned to do but keep having other obligations)) - which would have to be done, none of the tracks, WIP or finished IMO right now ((except a couple special ones)) are anywhere near the quality of where they should be for release.

I have been asked why not pushing forward with existing WIPs wouldn't work. This is because, I have a problem with releasing someone's music that was made in 2005-2010 when it doesn't represent what they feel is their skill level today. Having multiple artists across a five year period with different degrees of skills, samples (some outdated), and styles makes it much harder as well.

So that being said, for this project to continue, I would need:

1. Assistants. Someone or a couple people who are willing to help w/ tasks such as recruiting, and organization. Preferably people who know some musicians who I don't know already.

2. New Remixers. People who are currently active in the community who like/love Dragon Warrior as much as we do, or at least appreciate the music.

3. A solid album structure. Personally, I feel that the 3 Dragon Quest games was probably one of the hardest criteria to tackle for a first project. And if I had to choose, I wouldn't have done it. I would have instead chosen a DQ album much simpler in concept, such as Dragon Quest IV (which is my favorite). But IMO if you haven't played Dragon Quest 1-3, then of course it feels like they should be split up. But if you have, the underlying themes of these games (especially by the time you reach DQ3) is that they are all of the same mold, and directly relate to each other. Since an album of DQ would cater a bit more to niche fans, it's best to keep the album thematic, with an overall understanding presented that we REALLY get Dragon Warrior.

If anyone is willing to discuss this with me, feel free. I am aware that the project stagnated, and when I took it over I did all I could at the time to try to spark more interest and save the tracks that were already there from 2005. Right now though, it's 2013... So if anyone wants to discuss some strategy with me or what their thoughts are on helping CoE succeed, feel free.

Personally, when I took over, I wanted was a solid album structure, relatively thematic, organic (no orchestra) where pieces have an underlying uniformity (not completely, but a semblance that connects them all together) to tell an abstract story, and for musical artists to challenge themselves to bend their music to the "one" instead of just a collection of tracks.

I know that Sugiyama's music is a bit harder to approach in general though, and so many people have tried and fallen through.

I'm willing to try again, but I need support

Edited October 14, 2013 by Monobrow

[Brandon Strader]

Directing an album is a lot of work. You gotta go search for remixers and get them on board, you can't just wait for them to show up because they never will. :3

[Monobrow]

Super obvious advice is super obvious.

If this project is redone though, the pool of talent outside (such as w/ YouTube and the like) has definitely matured a lot since 2005 or even 2009.

[Xarnax42]

Man, I think this was the first project that I was really excited about when I discovered OCR. Dragon Warrior is synonymous with my childhood. And I've got a few album ideas I've been tossing around. I think any degree of project experience under my belt would help a lot, and I really want to see this one moving again.

[Monobrow]

Sure. Feel free to PM me any ideas you have.

Just an FYI though, I am currently in the process of moving so if I don't get back to anyone until after this coming weekend that would be why.

[x_loto]

Wow, a lot of motion in this thread yesterday. Cool!

I can definitely see why Sugiyama's music is off putting. Looking over the music for DQI-Battle, I can say I have never seen so many diminished chords on the same page in my life. Still, I know it can be done, and seeing "weird" chording doesn't change any of the ideas I've had.

I'm still going to try to work on this. I'll have to see what I can do for recording, since I've never had much success recording hard rock or metal (I haven't had access to any actual effects and have had to add them in production, which makes it difficult to tell how anything will sound), but those problems will be fixed if I borrow an amp...anyway, I'm out of time, but I'm glad to see even a little movement here!

[KyleJCrb]

At this point, I would just look for people to cover the soundtrack to the first game as it's the most iconic, drop everything else from the other two games that isn't finished (or nearly finished, if the remixers can wrap it up quickly), and release it as is.

[djpretzel]

At this point, I would just look for people to cover the soundtrack to the first game as it's the most iconic, drop everything else from the other two games that isn't finished (or nearly finished, if the remixers can wrap it up quickly), and release it as is.

I think that would be a shame.

We'd talked about someone from staff, potentially OA, taking this project over at some point.

Would you be willing to co-direct with me? It's all up to Katie, but imo maintaining the series focus would be nice - to SOME extent - and polishing things up in 2014 should be doable, with the right series of steps.

[Brandon Strader]

Would you be willing to co-direct with me? It's all up to Katie

Sometimes that's all it would take for an album to BLOW UP. Directed by djpretzel, remixed by literally everyone. I support this endeavor.

My mix still exists... I think... It was "done" but that was back when I sucked.

[KyleJCrb]

I think that would be a shame.

I agree, and ideally Rexy's original vision wouldn't be compromised. My thinking was that it's taken so long and Dragon Quest isn't hugely popular within our community that it might be easier to focus on and recruit for the most iconic game in the series (the first one.) With a focused reboot though, I think it may work.

As for co-directing with you: it's tempting, but I'll have to think about it. I'm a little burnt out on projects (I've been at this project thing for almost 9 years straight at this point!) I stepped off of VROOM because of that as well as time constraints, so I don't want to just go hop on another project and abandon them now that TMNT is out.